The Home Workshop

This book is a compilation of articles and plans from previous issues of Woodsmith. If you go to their web site, you can download the individual plans, but you're much better off buying this book. The book gives you twelve plans, including the workbench and cabinet, router table, table saw and miter saw stations, and a pretty good lumber rack, among others. The plans are well laid out, you get materials lists and cutting diagrams, and they include enough text to guide you through an entire project, start to finish. What I particularly liked were two things: 1) They warned you in advance of what NOT to do and what to watch out for, and 2) they gave you additional plans for jigs to make the job faster, easier, and better. Each project shows multiple exploded views, with plenty of closeups of the tricky parts. Additonally, they ocassionally offer alternatives ways to build things, usually faster, cheaper, and/or easier if your skills aren't quite up to snuff. A real bonus are the Shop Tips. These appear about every three or four pages and convey some little tidbit of information that usually applies directly to the project you're working on.I built the workbench and cabinet from the plans, and everything went smoothly (well, as smoothly as you could reasonably expect). I'm not a cabinet maker (yet), but this bench was the first step to move me in that direction. I learned a lot about joinery and ended up building the most valuable tool in my workshop. Unfortunately, to build a truly excellent bench requires a pretty good bench to begin with. (As with most jigs, you wish you could use the jig you're building to help you build it.) It's such a beautiful bench that it's almost a shame to do work on it. This is a work of art that could easily live in the living room. I'll be laying down a piece of melamine on it before I do anything involving glue or stain or anything else that could potentially hurt it.The pages are high-quality and won't tear out easily. The book binding is loose leaf, held together by 32 rings. This means the book lays flat and stays open at whatever page you were reading. Of course, it also means you have to take care not to crimp the inside edge, as with any loose leaf binding. Like with a three-ring notebook full of paper, you need to help the pages a little. Small potatoes, though.The cover is adequate, glossy over heavy card stock, and it seems to hold up okay. I've not abused my copy much, but I believe it will take a fair amount of punishment so long as you keep it dry.In summary, if you're looking to learn about fine furniture crafting, this is where to start. If it doesn't help you, I'LL give you your money back. The only complaint I could find was that the authors have access to many more tools than the Average Joe, and so you may need to beg, borrow, buy, or rent additional items to complete your project. Use good materials, take your time, do it right, and you'll be rewarded immensely.